Minoru Yamasaki and the Fragility of Architecture

Minoru Yamasaki and the Fragility of Architecture PDF Author: Paul Kidder
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000417131
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Few figures in the American arts have stories richer in irony than does architect Minoru Yamasaki. While his twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center are internationally iconic, few who know the icon recognize its architect’s name or know much about his portfolio of more than 200 buildings. One is tempted to call him America’s most famous forgotten architect. He was classed in the top tier of his profession in the 1950s and ’60s, as he carried modernism in novel directions, yet today he is best known not for buildings that stand but for two projects that were destroyed under tragic circumstances: the twin towers and the Pruitt-Igoe housing project in St. Louis. This book undertakes a reinterpretation of Yamasaki’s significance that combines architectural history with the study of his intersection with defining moments of American history and culture. The story of the loss and vulnerability of Yamasaki’s legacy illustrates the fragility of all architecture in the face of natural and historical forces, yet in Yamasaki’s view, fragility is also a positive quality in architecture: the source of its refinement, beauty, and humanity. We learn something essential about architecture when we explore this tension of strength and fragility. In the course of interpreting Yamasaki’s architecture through the wide lens of the book we see the mid-century role of Detroit as an industrial power and architectural mecca; we follow a debate over public housing that entailed the creation and eventual destruction of many thousands of units; we examine competing attempts to embody democratic ideals in architecture and to represent those ideals in foreign lands; we ponder the consequences of anti-Japanese prejudice and the masculism of the architectural profession; we see Yamasaki’s style criticized for its arid minimalism yet equally for its delicacy and charm; we observe Yamasaki making a great name for himself in the Arab world but his twin towers ultimately destroyed by Islamic militants. As this curious tale of ironies unfolds, it invites reflection on the core of modern architecture’s search for meaning and on the creative possibilities its legacy continues to offer. Beautifully illustrated with over 100 color illustrations of Yamasaki’s buildings, this book will be of interest to students, academics and professionals in a range of disciplines, including architectural history, architectural theory, architectural preservation, and urban design and planning.

Minoru Yamasaki and the Fragility of Architecture

Minoru Yamasaki and the Fragility of Architecture PDF Author: Paul Kidder
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000417131
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Get Book Here

Book Description
Few figures in the American arts have stories richer in irony than does architect Minoru Yamasaki. While his twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center are internationally iconic, few who know the icon recognize its architect’s name or know much about his portfolio of more than 200 buildings. One is tempted to call him America’s most famous forgotten architect. He was classed in the top tier of his profession in the 1950s and ’60s, as he carried modernism in novel directions, yet today he is best known not for buildings that stand but for two projects that were destroyed under tragic circumstances: the twin towers and the Pruitt-Igoe housing project in St. Louis. This book undertakes a reinterpretation of Yamasaki’s significance that combines architectural history with the study of his intersection with defining moments of American history and culture. The story of the loss and vulnerability of Yamasaki’s legacy illustrates the fragility of all architecture in the face of natural and historical forces, yet in Yamasaki’s view, fragility is also a positive quality in architecture: the source of its refinement, beauty, and humanity. We learn something essential about architecture when we explore this tension of strength and fragility. In the course of interpreting Yamasaki’s architecture through the wide lens of the book we see the mid-century role of Detroit as an industrial power and architectural mecca; we follow a debate over public housing that entailed the creation and eventual destruction of many thousands of units; we examine competing attempts to embody democratic ideals in architecture and to represent those ideals in foreign lands; we ponder the consequences of anti-Japanese prejudice and the masculism of the architectural profession; we see Yamasaki’s style criticized for its arid minimalism yet equally for its delicacy and charm; we observe Yamasaki making a great name for himself in the Arab world but his twin towers ultimately destroyed by Islamic militants. As this curious tale of ironies unfolds, it invites reflection on the core of modern architecture’s search for meaning and on the creative possibilities its legacy continues to offer. Beautifully illustrated with over 100 color illustrations of Yamasaki’s buildings, this book will be of interest to students, academics and professionals in a range of disciplines, including architectural history, architectural theory, architectural preservation, and urban design and planning.

Minoru Yamasaki

Minoru Yamasaki PDF Author: Dale Allen Gyure
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300229860
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
The first book to reevaluate the evocative and polarizing work of one of midcentury America’s most significant architects Born to Japanese immigrant parents in Seattle, Minoru Yamasaki (1912–1986) became one of the towering figures of midcentury architecture, even appearing on the cover of Time magazine in 1963. His self-proclaimed humanist designs merged the modern materials and functional considerations of postwar American architecture with traditional elements such as arches and colonnades. Yamasaki’s celebrated and iconic projects of the 1950s and ’60s, including the Lambert–St. Louis Airport and the U.S. Science Pavilion in Seattle, garnered popular acclaim. Despite this initial success, Yamasaki’s reputation began to decline in the 1970s with the mixed critical reception of the World Trade Center in New York, one of the most publicized projects in the world at the time, and the spectacular failure of St. Louis’s Pruitt-Igoe Apartments, which came to symbolize the flaws of midcentury urban renewal policy. And as architecture moved in a more critical direction influenced by postmodern theory, Yamasaki seemed increasingly old-fashioned. In the first book to examine Yamasaki’s life and career, Dale Allen Gyure draws on a wealth of previously unpublished archival material, and nearly 200 images, to contextualize his work against the framework of midcentury modernism and explore his initial successes, his personal struggles—including with racism—and the tension his work ultimately found in the divide between popular and critical taste.

Hiroshi Hara

Hiroshi Hara PDF Author: Hiroshi Hara
Publisher: Academy Press
ISBN:
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
This volume charts the development of the designs of Hiroshi Hara as well as the innovative uses of emerging building technologies. The text also illuminates the question of how to maintain a successful architecture practice.

Yamasaki in Detroit

Yamasaki in Detroit PDF Author: John Gallagher
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 0814341209
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description
Explores the life, creative drive, and notable projects of modernist architect Minoru Yamasaki. Although his best-known project was the World Trade Center in New York City, Japanese American architect Minoru Yamasaki (1912–1986) worked to create moments of surprise, serenity, and delight in distinctive buildings around the world. In his adopted home of Detroit, where he lived and worked for the last half of his life, Yamasaki produced many important designs that range from public buildings to offices and private residences. In Yamasaki in Detroit: A Search for Serenity, author John Gallagher presents both a biography of Yamasaki—or Yama as he was known—and an examination of his working practices, with an emphasis on the architect's search for a style that would express his artistic goals. Gallagher explores Yamasaki's drive to craft tranquil spaces amid bustling cities while other modernists favored "glass box" designs. He connects Yamasaki's design philosophy to tumultuous personal experiences, including the architect's efforts to overcome poverty, racial discrimination, and his own inner demons. Yamasaki in Detroit surveys select projects spanning from the late 1940s to the end of Yamasaki's life, revealing the unique gardens, pools, plazas, skylight atriums, and other oases of respite in these buildings. Gallagher includes prominent works like the Michigan Consolidated Gas Building in downtown Detroit, Temple Beth-El in Bloomfield Township, and landmark buildings on the Wayne State University and College for Creative Studies campuses, as well as smaller medical clinics, office buildings, and private homes (including Yamasaki's own residence). Gallagher consults Yamasaki's own autobiographical writings, architects who worked with Yamasaki in his firm, and photography from several historic archives to give a full picture of the architect's work and motivations. Both knowledgeable fans of modernist architecture and general readers will enjoy Yamasaki in Detroit. Wayne State University Press gratefully acknowledges the organizations that generously supported the publication of this book: Friends of Modern and Contemporary Art, Detroit Institute of Arts, Yamasaki, Inc. and The Office of the Vice President of Research (OVPR) of Wayne State University.

The Roots of Japanese Architecture

The Roots of Japanese Architecture PDF Author: 幸夫·二川
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780060113902
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
Crocodile's violin practice annoys his neighbor, Elephant, so much that he takes up the trumpet in self-defense.

Terunobu Fujimori Architect

Terunobu Fujimori Architect PDF Author: Terunobu Fujimori
Publisher: Hatje Cantz Verlag
ISBN: 9783775733236
Category : Architects
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The sophisticated designs by Terunobu Fujimori (*1946 in Nagano prefecture) are fascinating: archaic, eccentric, poetic, and ecological, almost all of them are made of simple, traditional materials such as earth, stone, wood, coal, bark, and mortar. His architecture appeals to primordial instincts, promising warmth and protection. His structures serve as role models for a generation of young international architects who value a mode of building that is ecological, historically aware, and sustainable. This publication uses models, drawings, architectural plans, and photographs to examine the designs by Fujimori, who enjoys being referred to as the world's only Surrealist architect. 0Exhibition: Museum Villa Stuck, Mu nchen, Germany (21.6.-16.9.2012).

Casa SANAA (Spanish Edition)

Casa SANAA (Spanish Edition) PDF Author: Sam Chermayeff
Publisher: Actar D, Inc.
ISBN: 1638409293
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 197

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Book Description
Sanaa’s housing projects, both finished (House A, S House, House in a Plum Grove, Small House and Moriyama House), and unfinished projects (Flower House, Garden & House, Seijo Apartments, Ichikawa Apartments, House in China and Eda Apartments). SANAA's architecture embraces complexities within deceptively simple appearances. It has many elements that are impossible to understand unless actually “experienced”. In contrast with modern architecture, SANAA has many aspects that cannot be revealed in “representative” media such as plans, models, and photographs. The “representations” of their architectural works incorporate ambiguity and chronological elements. This characteristic makes Sanaa one of the most innovative offices in the current architectural panorama.

Architectural Styles

Architectural Styles PDF Author: Owen Hopkins
Publisher: Laurence King Publishing
ISBN: 1780676387
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 446

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Book Description
Have you ever wondered what the difference is between Gothic and Gothic Revival, or how to distinguish between Baroque and Neoclassical? This guide makes extensive use of photographs to identify and explain the characteristic features of nearly 300 buildings. The result is a clear and easy-to-navigate guide to identifying the key styles of western architecture from the classical age to the present day.

Thermal Delight in Architecture

Thermal Delight in Architecture PDF Author: Lisa Heschong
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262580397
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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Book Description
Our thermal environment is as rich in cultural associations as our visual, acoustic, olfactory, and tactile environments. This book explores the potential for using thermal qualities as an expressive element in building design. Until quite recently, building technology and design has favored high-energy-consuming mechanical methods of neutralizing the thermal environment. It has not responded to the various ways that people use, remember, and care about the thermal environment and how they associate their thermal sense with their other senses. The hearth fire, the sauna, the Roman and Japanese baths, and the Islamic garden are discussed as archetypes of thermal delight about which rituals have developed—reinforcing bonds of affection and ceremony forged in the thermal experience. Not only is thermal symbolism now obsolete but the modern emphasis on central heating systems and air conditioning and hermetically sealed buildings has actually damaged our thermal coping and sensing mechanisms. This book for the solar age could help change all that and open up for us a new dimension of architectural experience. As the cost of energy continues to skyrocket, alternatives to the use of mechanical force must be developed to meet our thermal needs. A major alternative is the use of passive solar energy, and the book will provide those interested in solar design with a reservoir of ideas.

What an Architecture Student Should Know

What an Architecture Student Should Know PDF Author: Jadwiga Krupinska
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317755022
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
It's not just you. Every architecture student is initially confused by architecture school - an education so different that it doesn't compare to anything else. A student’s joy at being chosen in stiff competition with many other applicants can turn to doubt when he or she struggles to understand the logic of the specific teaching method. Testimony from several schools of design and architecture in different countries indicates that many students feel disoriented and uncertain. This book will help you understand and be aware of: Specific working methods at architecture schools and in the critique process, so you'll feel oriented and confident. How to cope with uncertainty in the design process. How to develop the ability to synthesize the complexity of architecture in terms of function, durability, and beauty. This book is about how architects learn to cope with uncertainty and strive to master complexity. Special attention is given to criticism, which is an essential part of the design process. The author, a recipient of several educational awards, has written this book for architecture students and teachers, to describe how each student can adopt the architect's working method. Key concepts are defined throughout and references at the end of each chapter will point you to further reading so you can delve into topics you find particularly interesting. Jadwiga Krupinska is professor emerita at the School of Architecture of the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden.